AG Bill Schuette endorses Jeb Bush for president

Attorney General Bill Schuette added his name to a growing list of Republicans who are supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s bid for the presidency.

“He has an outstanding record of accomplishment and achievement,” Schuette said. “And we need someone who can organize and fund-raise against Hillary Clinton. Do we want a third Obama term, or Jeb’s record of reducing taxes, in the White House.”

The vote of support from Schuette, who has a long history with the Bush family and will be the chairman of Bush’s campaign in Michigan, came along with many other GOP endorsements Wednesday, including: co-chairmen C. Michael Kojaian and David T. Fischer; U.S. Rep. David Trott; former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham and his wife Jane Abraham; former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land; Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson; state Sen. Goeff Hansen; and state Reps. Kathy Crawford of Novi, Andrea LaFontaine of Columbia, Mike McCready of Birmingham, Amanda Price of Park Township, and Ken Yonker of Gaines Township.

The announcement came just a month shy of the Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island where Bush will speak along with other Republican candidates for president: California businesswoman Carly Fiorina, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

“Mackinac is the launching pad for the presidential race in Michigan,” Schuette said, adding the plethora of candidates on the GOP side will shrink in the coming months.

“This is a marathon. You have to be able to go the full distance,” he said. “Jeb Bush has the ability, both organizationally and financial wise, to go the distance.”

He’s got a good start in Michigan where camapign cash is concerned. His campaign and its supporters raised far more in the first half of the year than anyone else — $1.76 million — and counted on some big donors with long-standing ties to his family to do so.

Of that amount, more than $1 million came from just six donors giving to Rise to Rise USA, a Super PAC supporting Bush’s presidency that can raise and spend unlimited amounts on his behalf.

Among them: Bloomfield Hills’ Kojaian Management Co., whose owner, C. Michael Kojaian, was a top fund-raiser for Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush, and who gave $310,000; Roger Penske, with $250,000; and David Fischer, whose Suburban Automotive Consultants in Troy gave $200,000.

The list was rounded out by real estate developer Harold Beznos of Farmington Hills, another former fund-raiser for George W. Bush; Detroit’s PVS Chemicals, a company run by long-time Republican donor Jim Nicholson and his family; and Mickey Shapiro, the largest private landowner in Oakland County and a former Bush appointee to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, with each donating $100,000.

Schuette said he’s talked with other GOP candidates, but his allegiance to the Bush family — he worked for both Presidents George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush.

“It’s been no secret that I have a friendship with the Bush family. I think most folks probably anticipated that I’d be supporting Jeb,” he said.